Most large enterprises are going to want this nowadays. Why? Because it is simply in their best interests to do so.
Before we give a full explanation, let’s do a quick overview of MMS and BYOD:
Managed mobility services take a comprehensive approach to managing an enterprise’s mobile devices and related services with respect to both mobility operations and their associated expenses.
For example, managed mobility services can include procurement support, mobile deployment management, invoice processing/payment support, audit and optimization analyses, inventory management, as well as any additional support needed related to tablets, smartphones, laptops, and other wireless devices.
And these services are generally provided by 3rd-Party TEM/MMS providers.
A BYOD program is one where an enterprise allows its employees to utilize their own mobile devices for work purposes. Employees will benefit from phone reimbursement and being able to use their own phones.
This benefit comes with a tradeoff: The company will be allowed to enforce its policy around use which will entail security measures as well as decisions around allowable applications on the phone, as well as other potential policy constraints.
These corporate-driven rules are usually not too onerous and therefore most employees will be receptive to this type of policy, and therefore a big reason why this BYOD approach has gained in popularity over recent years.
Why Enterprises Best Manage a BYOD Plan via Managed Mobility Services
Even though employees are granted the freedom to choose their own devices and perhaps their selection of plan given their role under a BYOD phone plan, the company still has legitimate financial, policy, and security responsibilities associated with its employee-user base under this mobility plan. There’s a great deal to manage, which is challenging for enterprise expense management teams.
Because of these many real business concerns, it’s therefore incentivized to utilize managed mobility services (MMS) to help enterprise expense management teams manage BYOD devices in an operationally and financially effective manner throughout the full mobility lifecycle, for both the company and employees’ best interests.
Before diving deeper into how managed mobility services can help with the management of a BYOD mobile phone plan, let’s review some of the basics of the BYOD offering.
BYOD Mobile Plan Overview
As noted above, it’s essentially quid pro quo: You can enjoy the use of your own device for work purposes with reimbursement, whereas the company, conversely, is granted the benefit of putting in place a mobile device policy that protects its corporate interests, most notably around measures having to do with security concerns.
Companies are generally incentivized to offer BYOD mobile plans to their employees because they can save costs and reduce some administrative burdens, such as procurement activities while offering employees desirable benefits they enjoy.
The BYOD plan, if properly implemented, creates a win-win situation for both employees and the company. It’s also noteworthy to mention that many corporations view this as a positive employee retention move, given its overall popularity with most employees.
3 Key Areas of MMS Responsibility for the BYOD Mobile Plan
Because the corporation still needs to be heavily involved in the administration of various areas of BYOD plan management, i.e., financial, policy, and IT security, it will benefit tremendously from utilizing managed mobility services to help with plan management and enforcement of critical policies, especially those relating to security compliance.
BYOD mobile plans will necessitate MMS support for the three key areas noted above, which will benefit from managed mobility services support.
1. Corporate policies will need to be managed and enforced
The company will need to manage its reimbursement policy tightly with employees, ensuring it honors its financial commitment to its employees while simultaneously staying compliant with all pertinent industry standards, laws, and regulations.
Applicable tax laws and GDPR data protection enforcement are examples that easily come to mind.
The company also needs to take a proactive posture in ensuring that the plans that it offers meet the needs of its employees across various carriers and amongst differing plan offerings.
Leveraging a strong TEM/MMS platform and an experienced team of mobility subject-matter experts will be key to this effort.
2. Cost control measures will require ongoing management
Given the company’s involvement in the administration and ongoing management of the BYOD plan, it will naturally have to keep a close eye on employee device usage and associated costs.
Various system functionality such as automated alerts can be implemented via the TEM/MMS platform, along with expense management best practices to help monitor appropriate and acceptable usage while avoiding overage charges or inappropriate device use (e.g., fraud).
And the various other managed mobility support areas such as audit and optimization analyses will add tremendous value to the ongoing expense management success of the organization.
3. Security measures and policies will need to be enforced
This is naturally a big concern for all CIOs and their IT teams.
All the normal and standard mobile security measures will need to be utilized -even though the employee technically owns the device – to keep all devices working properly and mitigate the potential for harm to both the employee and the company from outside security threats.
Mobile security features such as virus protection and encryption support, as well as remote wipe capabilities, need to be supported by the company IT team and all relevant outside resources such as a TEM/MMS provider.
A competent TEM/MMS provider will bring to bear both the right technology platform and industry expertise to help support and enforce all security-related measures.
Managed Mobility Services Fully Supports a BYOD Program
While providing important mobile management technology such as a strong TEM/MMS platform, along with deep domain expertise from subject-matter experts, managed mobility support is a critical need for large modern-day enterprises with BYOD plans.
In addition to providing key support for the three areas featured in this article, strong managed mobility services support can also shore up company mobility training needs and augment any necessary additional support relative to device management such as help desk, configuration, or troubleshooting support.
In sum, MMS is a comprehensive approach to managing all your organization’s expense management needs for mobility.
The managed mobility services focus is on encompassing support for all services, applications, and devices throughout your entire organization and throughout the full mobility lifecycle, and therefore a worthwhile endeavor for companies seeking strong management for their BYOD mobile phone plans.
If you’d like to consider Tellennium in your TEM vendor comparisons, contact us to schedule a brief demo of our solution.
Explore More Articles
Breaking Down Pricing Models for Managed Mobility Services
Pricing will always be top of mind for expense management leaders researching potential TEM/MMS providers that can assist them with their telecom/technology/mobility expense management needs. The cost of managed mobility services (MMS) will almost always pay for itself in terms of savings generated by your MMS provider over the term of a standard 3-year term
Six Ways Companies Benefit from Managed Mobility Services
Managed Mobility Services (MMS) are used by a wide range of companies across various industries, including healthcare, finance, manufacturing, retail, and transportation. All organizations that rely on mobile devices can benefit from MMS; and MMS can help streamline device management, reduce costs, and improve the overall user experience. These usually have a minimum of 500
Using Mobility Plans to Increase Employee Retention
Keeping employees, especially the good ones has never been easy. It’s safe to say that it’s harder in our present era of worker shortages. You are mulling over how to best retain these employees and not detrimentally impact your organization and expense management program. Corporate Paid Mobility Plans Help Keep Your Team A recent survey
Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) – Another Corporate Mobility Phone Plan to Consider With BYOD & COPE
In a prior mobility plan article: BYOD versus COPE, we touched on some of the pros and cons to two very common enterprise mobility phone plans: (1) Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and (2) Corporate Owned Personally Enabled (COPE). In this blog, we will consider another plan- Choose Your Own Device (CYOD)– which is emerging